D&D (2024) Just DMed my 1st session of 5.5. Healer's Kit!?!?!

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe, I don't really care much. We have our own much more simulationist rules for HP and healing than D&D has ever had.

How do you do it, if I may ask?

 

[dave2008]

How do you do it, if I may ask?

The big thing for us is that we have Bloodied Hit Points (BHP = wound points) that are actual meat points (not half HP like in 4e and 5e). So HP is, in my mind, freed up to be what it is great at (plot armor: skill, stamina, luck, very minor injuries). This also means HP can heal like normal and their is no narrative disconnect. Real injuries, BHP damage, takes much longer to heal. This all ties into our AC rules to. Here are our standard house rules:

Spoiler: Dave2008's House Rules

Ability Scores:

• 18 max
• Racial bonus added to max, not initial score.

Feats:
No ASI, we only take feats.

Bloodied Hit Points:

• In addition to hit points, all characters (and Monsters) get bloodied hit points (BHP)
• BHP = (Str Mod + Con Mod) x Size (¼ Tiny, ½ Small, 1 Medium, 2 Large, 3 Huge, & 4 Gargantuan)
• You lose bloodied hit points on a critical hit.

Armor:

• AC works as normal, except…
• Armor has Damage Reduction (DR) applied only when you would take damage to your BHP
• Armor DR = AC-10

Hit Dice: In addition to healing

• You can spend 1 HD to recharge a short rest ability
• You can spend 1 HD to increase your speed for 1 round: add roll x2 in feet
• You can spend 1 HD to increase damage: add roll to your damage
• You can spend 2 HD to recharge a daily ability
• You can spend 4 HD and an action to end 1 condition you are suffering.
• You must spend at least 1 HD anytime you are healed (even by magic)
• You can spend HD to recover Exhaustion. 1 HD per level. If you have 2 levels of exhaustion, you must spend 2 HD to get to level 1 and an additional HD to get to 0.

Rest, Recovery, & Death:

• You die at 0 BHP
• 5-minute short rest
• An extended rest = 1 week
• You recover 1 BHP/ extended rest with each use of a healer’s kit
• Medicine check (DC 20-current BHP): + 1 BHP or -3 days of recovery.

Leveling:

• To gain a level you must spend time training / researching, etc. during downtime.
• 1 week and 10 GP per level; 1 week = 40+ hrs of dedicated work

Fighter Features:

• Power attack: Instead of extra attacks a fighter can increase the damage of one attack: Total damage x2 (instead of 2 attacks); x3 (instead of 3 attacks) or x4 (instead of 4 attacks)
• Cleave rule from DMG.
• Can take an OA on target’s making ranged attack and casting spells.

Critical Hits

• A Critical hit is target AC +10. So a monster with AC 22 is critically hit on a 32.
• You take the rolled damage to HP and BHP on a critical hit.
• When your HP are 0, all hits are critical hits

Silver Standard
List GP price (official costs) = SP price (revise everything down accordingly)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That is your preconceived notion of what it means to "stabilize" or be stable. In 5e you can just lie there and become stable. It is clearly not that big of a deal. So if I can do something by lying down and being unconscious for 18 seconds, it doesn't seem like such a big deal to try and do the same thing actively in 3 second. It really depends on how you perceive Hit Points and what it means to be "stable."

I agree, and much of my earlier description was meant to convey the problem with imagining what is, to be fair, the most obvious scenario when your character is "dying" from "damage" from a "weapon" or potentially lethal spell effect, and another character "stabilizes" them with a "healer's kit".

It automatically invokes a medical procedure, with at least bandaging involved, if not minor surgery.

So, while the problem lies with taking all the terms too literally,the fault often lies with the game labeling things with "worse case scenario" style names.

I find that many arguments about D&D are often down to this. Certainly arguments that come from literalist players railing against "gamist" rules. From their perspectives, they have a point.

I have long advised that (I personally find) it is easier to assume that D&D terms only sometimes directly correlate to their literal meaning. Much, if not most, of the time it is "something like X, or whatever works for you".

 

[Horwath]

The "drink a potion as a bonus action" breaks my brain. In under six seconds, you are supposed to be able to pull a bottle out of your pocket, open it, and swallow its contents...while holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, in hand-to-hand combat with someone swinging an axe at your head.

Ugh. I know this is a game and all, but geez.

of all the things to complain in D&D for realism, this has to be at the bottom of my list.

potion is 1 fl oz of liquid, I'm sure that anyone here can down a shooter in less than half a second. Add that you need to draw it from potion belt that is designed to be accessed quickly and that you need to thumb the cork of, I would say that is max of 2 seconds.

could that be an Action, like in 5E? yes.
Is if more fun and better for the game that is is Bonus action? also yes.

 

[CleverNickName]

of all the things to complain in D&D for realism, this has to be at the bottom of my list.

potion is 1 fl oz of liquid, I'm sure that anyone here can down a shooter in less than half a second. Add that you need to draw it from potion belt that is designed to be accessed quickly and that you need to thumb the cork of, I would say that is max of 2 seconds.

I mean, give it a try. Go to the liquor store and get one of those little 1-oz bottles of whiskey. They have lots of different shapes and lids/stoppers; get whatever one you think will work best. Then use the stopwatch on your phone to time how long it takes you just to open it and pour it into a glass. It sounds like you're going to be surprised how long it takes.

could that be an Action, like in 5E? yes.
Is if more fun and better for the game that is is Bonus action? also yes.

Like I said: I know this is a game, but geez.

 

[AlViking]

I mean, give it a try. Go to the liquor store and get one of those little 1-oz bottles of whiskey. They have lots of different shapes and lids/stoppers; get whatever one you think will work best. Then use the stopwatch on your phone to time how long it takes you just to open it and pour it into a glass. It sounds like you're going to be surprised how long it takes.


Like I said: I know this is a game, but geez.

Does it say somewhere that potions are an ounce? I know that video games always present them as quite large but I have never seen a definitive answer. They could be like those old school perfume bottles that you dab on which could be a quarter of an ounce. If it were up to me I'd probably increase the time of a single round to at least 10 seconds but for the most part I just don't worry about exactly how long a round is other than for how long magical effects last.

 

[CleverNickName]

Does it say somewhere that potions are an ounce? I know that video games always present them as quite large but I have never seen a definitive answer. They could be like those old school perfume bottles that you dab on which could be a quarter of an ounce.

The DMG, pg. 139 says that "most potions contain about 1 oz. of liquid."

 

[AlViking]

The DMG, pg. 139 says that "most potions contain about 1 oz. of liquid."

I learned 2 things today. First is that I was looking at the wrong place for how much fluid was in a potion. The other is that 1 oz of water is grand total of 1/2 tablespoon which is barely enough to wet you whistle.

Edit - I also realized I misread. It's 2 tablespoons to an ounce, still not even a mouthful.

 

[CleverNickName]

I learned 2 things today. First is that I was looking at the wrong place for how much fluid was in a potion. The other is that 1 oz of water is grand total of 1/2 tablespoon which is barely enough to wet you whistle.

Edit - I also realized I misread. It's 2 tablespoons to an ounce, still not even a mouthful.

Yep. I've had shots of whiskey larger than that. And yet, try as I may, I can't open and empty a one-ounce bottle in under 5 seconds, even if I start with the bottle in my hand and the seal already broken.

(hic) An' I'm notso shure I shou'd keep tryin' (hic)

 

[Baron Opal II]

I learned 2 things today. First is that I was looking at the wrong place for how much fluid was in a potion. The other is that 1 oz of water is grand total of 1/2 tablespoon which is barely enough to wet you whistle.

Edit - I also realized I misread. It's 2 tablespoons to an ounce, still not even a mouthful.

Vague trivia - an ounce was described as a mouthful of liquid. A comfortable one, not maximal capacity.
Which is why a liquor pour is two ounces. Two mouthfuls of liquor per serving.

On topic: I remember in AD&D we would have people "bind wounds". A person would spend an action to prevent them from bleeding out and dying if they reached -10 hp. They just laid there without magic, potions, or special knowledge. But, you could stop them from dying.